(aka "Long hu feng" or "Dragon vs.
Needles of Death" or "Needles of Death" or "The Needle Avenger" )

directed by Kuo-heng Chung
Taiwan 1976

In THE NEEDLE AVENGER,
a young man joins a kung-fu academy but fails to fit in
(probably because he skips lessons to practice his needle
throwing - which begs the question why he joined the academy
in the first place). He soon runs off with the master's
daughter and becomes a salt smuggler. He ends up joining
with the school's top fighter - his former rival - against a
local mob leader. THE NEEDLE AVENGER is a fairly
impoverished effort with unexciting fight choreography and
coverage. The lackadaisical English dubbing (although the
cast seems bland even taking that into account) and bad
foley work (used along with not-so-clever cutting to convey
the trajectory of the deadly needles) will probably be
appreciated by bad movie aficionados but it is no neglected
chop-sockey treasure. Meanwhile, in CHALLENGE THE DRAGON
(aka WAY OF THE TIGER not to be confused with Bruce
Lee's WAY OF THE DRAGON although I'm sure they
TIGER's producers and distributors wouldn't have
minded), Tang Lung protects a village from mobsters who are
after their ginseng crop. Although second-billed on the disc
menu (though first billed on the cover), CHALLENGE THE
DRAGON is a bit more interesting than its co-feature
with far more interesting and varied fight choreography (the
bamboo poles scene is a highlight) and unlike THE NEEDLE
AVENGER, it's got a female love interest who gets to do
quite a bit of the fighting. The bad English dubbing is a
bit more endearing here than in the co-feature (where it
just makes things more excruciating) although still
laughable.

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per
second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.

Bitrate

Audio

English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono

Subtitles

none

Features

Release Information:
Studio: Code Red

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen anamorphic - 2.31:1

Edition Details:
• Trailer (4:3; 2:04)

DVD Release Date: Amaray

Chapters 15

Comments

THE NEEDLE AVENGER
(onscreen title: DRAGON VS. NEEDLES OF DEATH) is in nowhere near
pristine form but the state of the print adds to the grindhouse
feel of the double bill which is appropriate since the
anamorphic, progressive source is a 21st Century Film Corp. U.S.
print (not surprising in itself since some of their print
elements have been next to impossible to source since the
company liquidated their assets - the company was acquired in
name only by Cannon and given to Menahem Golan as part of his
severance package). The image is sometimes distorted with
columns and other vertical details leaning slightly towards the
left (close-ups of characters during these scenes also exhibit
distortion). One or two shots also feature some vignetting along
the top edges but this may be a fault of the original
photography (the scope formatting - probably 2-perf Techniscope
- doesn't quite lend production value to the impoverished
production).

Audio is clear but
the sound is rough overall (in keeping with the print) but the
dubbing and sound design is fairly crude (there are sound
effects even when blows do not make contact and this is not a
sync issue). The widescreen framing, progressive image, and
anamorphic enhancement alone blows the previous fullscreen DVD
editions out of the water.